Press the arrow to listen to “Stand in Awe of You” by Phillips, Craig and Dean.

Scripture
“When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. 1 Corinthians 7:13-14

Observation
There is one simple summary of Solomon’s classic prayer: When life gets hard, don’t harden, be humble. There are many stages of this prayer: pray, seek, turn. But the first step is to humble.

Usually when life gets hard, we harden. We become self-reliant, calloused and defensive. At best we think it is up to us. At worst we imagine that God is mad at us. Either way, we turn to ourselves for answers.

But when we chose to soften in hard times a chain reaction begins. Instead of turning to ourselves for answers, we pray. Instead of turning to others, we seek God’s face. Instead of perpetuating wrong choices, we turn.

Application
Could it be that hardship is an invitation to re-calibrate? This invitation comes from our Lord who wants to soften toward us. He wants to hear, forgive and heal. But first we must humble.

Prayer
Father, I want to stiffen in hard times. Please help me to humble. Amen.